Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-11-15
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER IS, 1887.
A Very weak Invention.

A Very Weak Invention.
No one can be imposed upon by the
strained effort of the London Times in
trying to justify the action OF the Brit
ish Government towards the Irish
Land League by the firm administra-
ton of justice in this country in the
case of the murderous Anarchists.
We need not insult the intelligence of
our readers by saying that there is no
similarity in the cases. The policy OF
the Salisbury Government is not
based upon sincere desire to
yindicate law in Ireland, but
upon the predetermined purpose
of goading the Irish people into re-
sistance to the most monstrous
assumptions of arbitrary power, so as
to have an excuse to deprive them OF
even their natural rights, and to
tramp out every vestige of liberty in
the blood of the exasperated people.
To lay a basis for its unholy work,
the Salisbury Government secured,
by fair and foul means, the passage of
the most atrocious measures of coer-
cion, applicable alone to Ireland. By
there measures the hdbeas corpus can
be suspended at the will Of the Gov
eminent and the power of martial
law can be invoked at its pleasure.
The right of trial by jury can be with
drawn at the option OF the Judges;
and public meetings, however prop
erly called and however orderly. can
be proclaimed" and dispersed by the
military arm. The Government is
authorized by these draconian stat
utes to place Ireland in a state OF siege
at its own sweet will. No basis
OF cause was laid for the passage OF
these measures to harrass the Irish
people. Never, from the time of
Strongbow, had Ireland been freer
from crime and disorder than it has
since the Land League was organized.
Statistics show that life and property
werc safer in the past four years, be-
fore the policy of evaporation had
been adopted by the Salisbury
Government, than they were
in the most orderly districts cf
either England, Scotland or Wales.
Indeed, the great men who have con-
Quoted the Irish movement with such
consummate wisdom, have been the
actual rulers of the Irish people
through the Land League, and the
result has been to utterly confound
the enemies of Ireland who
declared that the Irish people could
only be held in check by force. The
Irish people have been struggling,
in perfectly constitutional way, to OBJ
tain for their country self-government.
Their conduct and ability, and their
power with the pc pie they represent,
have been the admiration of the civil
lied world. They proceeded entirely
within the limits of recognized law.
They suppressed agrarianism, ban
ished crime and made Ireland a model
of order even to TIE best behaved Sec
tons of the dominant island. In the
midst of this Arcadian peace the Brit
ish Government brutally lnjacts
the policy of provocation, treats
the Irish people as rebels,
withdraws from them the
commonest rights, places them out
side the pale of magma charta, forbids
them to peaceably assemble to dis
cuss their public affairs, harnesses
them with a brutal constabu airy
backed by truculent soldiery, i'm
prisons their leaders, outrages every
principle of justice, and so acts as to
leave them no recourse, outside of
slavish submission to uncomfortable
wrongs, or manly resistance to unex-
ampled tyranny.
1t requires a lively and sinister
Imagination to find the slightest par
sllel between the attitude OF brave
people protesting against outrages
such as these, and the criminal ac-
tions of the bomb-throwers, who, in
tho midst of peace, in the full enj y
mcnt of ali the rights guaranteed by our
laws and our constitution, deliberately
oreanized to carry outa programme OF
destruction and bloodshed. And,
the Nervousness OF
heir crime, they had the benefit OF a
air trial by jury and OF all the multi
udinous pIel - ami appeals OF which
,ur sy tenn of Jurisprudence is
o prolific. Habeas corpus nor
% other right was suspended |
gainst them, as they are sus-
ended against the poor peasant OF
,sland who defends his home and his {